A few months ago, Gijs van Popta was appointed as General Manager North Europe Air France KLM. We asked him to introduce himself to our members and tell us more about the current situation regarding flights.

"​I joined the team in North Europe earlier this year, after having spent 4,5 years in Singapore as General Manager for South East Asia & Oceania, covering some historical and iconic markets for both Air France and KLM such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. ​Before that I worked in the UK, Russia & CIS and Africa & Middle East and also spent some time in our Head Office in Pricing & Revenue Management, where the prices of tickets are determined."​What made you accept this challenge in a new country?"North Europe is a strategic market for Air France and KLM. For many decades we have grown our business together with our very loyal customers that not only fly to Paris or Amsterdam, but also use our hubs to fly to the world. In our normal schedule, we operate around 90 daily flights and serve around 6 million customers a year in the 8 countries that we cover. It is exciting to work with a fantastic team on our ambition to be the number 1 choice for business travellers in North Europe. Earlier this year we have seen that recognised when we won the 2020 Nordic Business Travel Awards for Best Airline. Even though the ceremony was cancelled due to the Covid-19 measures, we were all extremely delighted to receive this recognition voted by both our customers as well as peers in the business."

What are your expectations with regard to the development of Air France KLM in this region, especially considering the current crisis?"At this moment we are indeed in a very different situation. The current crisis has dramatically changed so much for so many people and companies around the world. The good news is that over the past weeks gradually we see demand for travel growing again, in line with the different countries gradually opening up. Our focus is obviously now on restarting our operations safe and secure and increasing travel options for our customers. Today we are only flying around 15% of our normal capacity, and both the Air France and KLM route-network will gradually get back in place in months to come, although it will take several years before we are back to 100%."

A very practical question: how is the flight connection between the Netherlands and Sweden today (Stockholm, Göteborg, Linköping etc)? What are the measures taken by KLM in these extreme circumstances?"KLM has been flying daily from Gothenburg and Stockholm to Amsterdam during the past months. We have recently restarted our Helsinki flight and are also restarting routes in Denmark and Norway. The latest updates are naturally available on KLM.com and AirFrance.com.We have been -and still are- very busy with many repatriation flights, bringing back Europeans from all over the world. On our flights today we have strict additional hygiene measures, for instance wearing a mask when traveling is compulsory, and on Air France we are also doing temperature checks. Every day, our aircrafts are thoroughly cleaned with approved disinfectants and during the flight, the air in our aircraft is continually renewed with fresh air drawn in from outside."

How can the Dutch Chamber support you in achieving your professional life goals?"Air France and KLM have always been very much grounded in the communities that we serve. For KLM we are proudly Dutch and besides serving our Swedish customers, we obviously serve the Dutch community here as well. Bringing these communities together is our core business, which is exactly what the Chamber does as well.For more than a decade we have been at the forefront leading our industry with our sustainability efforts. We aim to continue to drive – also in the current crisis- our sustainability efforts further forward. The Dutch Chamber provides various platforms, events and opportunities where KLM aims to both contribute and participate, and I’m looking forward to the moment I can meet other members in person."​/Marion Norman

On 26 May we organised the online workshop Resilience in turbulent times, together with trainer Ilse Wicherts from Arbetsriktning, one of our members. As an expert on leadership development and occupational safety & well-being Ilse talked about resilience as a beautiful metaphor of sailing a boat in stormy weathers.

We have learned more about how resilience works and how we can develop our mindset and skills even with some ‘kitchentable’ tips. It was interesting and heart-warming to share our personal experiences in small discussion groups.

​All together the workshop gave us the opportunity for new insights and getting to know each other on another level. A special thanks for Ilse Wicherts’ empowerment and also all participants for the encouraging contribution to War Child with this workshop.

If you did not attend but would like to hear more, please contact Ilse Wichers at Arbetsriktning.

It is a great pleasure to announce that the Executive Board has decided to grant Maarten Merckx an Honorary Membership of the Dutch Chamber. Boardmembers Els Berkers and Rex Schothorst have handed over a photo book with a selection of memories of the past 10 years, made in cooperation with Chris Jonkers. Due to the Corona restrictions Maarten has sent us his reaction in an e-mail:

"Almost on the day a year ago, when I decided to step down as chairman from the Dutch Chamber, Els and Rex met up with me at the sunny shores of Lidingö Dalenum. A lot has happened since I made that decision, not in the least the last few months due to the Corona virus, the reason why we had not met before.I was aware of why we would meet, but how immensely surprised I was with a perfect gift to remember 10 fantastic years of active duty in the Dutch Chamber. As my generation is regarded as "tourists in the digital world", I admit I feel more comfortable and at home with the very analog and tangible experience this "yearbook" offers me, now and years to come. It will give me a chance in due time, hopefully blessed with grandchildren, to tell the story of my active time at the Chamber. A time of joy. Thank you Els and Chris for making this effort and all the others that have contributed with so many heartwarming words. For now stay safe and hope to see many of you soon at Dutch a Chamber event."

On May 12th we organised a webinar for our members to hear and discuss the challenges businesses are facing in these turbulent times. It was a great honour that Ambassador Ines Coppoolse took the time to tell more about the Dutch economic measures to support businesses and to hear what was on the mind of the Dutch business community in Sweden.

As both the Swedish and Dutch economy are heavily depending on export, it might not be a surprise that both countries have similar approaches. The current focus is still on damage control and according to the Ambassador this will be so for some time to come. But at the same time both governments and expert organisations are building post Covid scenarios that can leverage on the green economy, taking into account climate change and sustainability goals.

This session also provided the possibility to meet (new) members and to share our challenges. It was a pleasure to see members from Stockholm, Malmö region, The Netherlands and even Spain. Besides the plenary sessions we used break up groups to discuss how we can move forward in a more responsible way once the crisis has passed.

Sigrid Westman and John Dekker from the Embassy would like to encourage all entrepreneurs and businesses to keep sharing signals and reflections with them after this webinar, so they can share these with policy makers in the Netherlands, Sweden and the EU. John Dekker also remains available for those who want to learn more about Horizon Europe.

A big thank you to Ruben Brunsveld from Enact Sustainable Strategies for moderating this event!

"I have 15 years professional experience in finance including investment banking and equity markets and I am currently a partner at Vator Securities.Prior to Vator Securities I took a side-step from finance and worked at an internet/tech start-up in Stockholm for 3 years before returning to finance.Prior to moving to Sweden in 2013, I lived in Brussels, Belgium and worked at ING and Degroof Petercam."I am married, we have 2 children and live just north of Stockholm, in Danderyd. I have a bachelors degree from the University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and a Masters degree from the University in Bristol, the United Kingdom.

Tell us more about Vator Securities."Vator Securities in Sweden is a corporate finance firm that focuses on identifying and financing growth companies as they expand and develop into tomorrow’s market leaders. We advise both private and publicly listed growth companies on raising capital and strategic business decisions."

What brought you to Sweden?"My Swedish wife, and her promise of white christmases and free daycare for the kids. I am Dutch after all.."

What are your expectations concerning the Dutch Chamber of Commerce? "I became a member to be able to extend my network and exchange ideas."

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce went digital to keep all members connected and hosted its first webinaron Tuesday the 21th of April on the use of social media in China. During this very interesting event, over 35 participants learned from Chinese social media specialist Norah Chu about social media in China and the impact during the outbreak of Covid-19. Some of the key take-outs were that social media play a very important role for people before and during the crisis in China and the use of online services have increased immensely due to the lockdown in a big part of the world. In China, the social media have been penetrated into people's daily life and those platforms are not being used only for sharing moments but are a tool for social commerce, digital identification and the communication for all daily purposes.The coronavirus has hit everyone’s life and we have learned to be more and more creative with our daily routine. We thank Norah for her inspirational presentation and all members and guests for their participation!

The Dutch company Building Blocks became SME-member in the beginning of this year. We asked Frank Hardeman, in charge of leading the Nordic activities, to tell us more about Building Blocks.

What exactly is Building Blocks doing?​It’s our mission to empower companies to understand and act in consumers' favour by personalising their products and services. We are gurus in consumer data science and want to show others that only if you put the consumer at the center of your organisation you can stay relevant for them. This is done by guiding companies in their data science maturity journey. Together with our clients we build customisable solutions that analyse consumer interactions and translate these into valuable individual experiences in all phases of the customer journey.

​Could you tell us a bit more about your background?My passion for data science was born during my study at the Tilburg University where I studied Econometrics. It still fascinates me how data can help to ease your day. Anyhow, this interest came in handy when I joined Building Blocks around 3.5 years ago as Strategy Manager. After a short field trip to the data science team of ASML I rejoined Building Blocks in April 2019 as Partner Manager. Currently, I’m fully focused on my most terrifying and fantastic task yet; leading Building Blocks into the Nordics. I made the decision to rejoin because at Building Blocks I have the opportunity to show others that implementing data science solutions in daily business doesn’t have to be complex or highly expensive. Where in my current role I can even extend this reach outside the Netherlands.

What are the challenges in building your business in a new country?Starting some place new comes with challenges. Where to begin and where to look? It brings new market dynamics we still have to make our own. Especially in a country where we do not speak the native language and not yet fully understand all culture difference. Hence, one of our biggest challenges at the moment is getting in touch with the right people and know how to build strong relationships.

How can the Dutch Chamber support you in achieving your goals?We would love to connect with people who have experience doing business in Sweden, that can steer us in the right direction and get us started. Or anyone who loves coffee and a good conversation. I'm just looking forward meeting you all during the next event. Can’t wait until then? I'm always in for digital Fika. Please contact me via LinkedIn.

Henk Hatzmann from Streetlife in Malmö has been a member since 2011 and we thought it was about time to learn more about him.

How did you end up in Sweden?In 2003 I went on a year-long backpacking trip to Australia during which I met my Swedish wife.Since this trip we have been living in both Sweden and the Netherlands and in 2010 we decided to move to Malmö and try to build up a life here. In that period I was working as a design engineer for Streetlife in Leiden which is an outdoor furniture design company. As I was moving to Sweden the company showed interest in starting an office for the Nordic market and asked me to perform a market research. The research had interesting results and there seemed to be great potential for us to expand on the Nordic market. We officially started the office in January 2011 and since then I have been working on developing the business.

What kind of company is Streetlife?Streetlife designs and develops outdoor furniture like seating, planters, bicycle parking but also steel prefab pedestrian bridges.Products are designed and produced in Holland. Part of our success besides the design is our flexibility to adjust our products to the plans of our clients.Our clients are mostly municipalities, (landscape) architects, and housing corporations. Our products are placed on public squares, shopping streets and around universities, housing and commercial buildings.Currently most specifiers know about Streetlife and most of the large Nordic cities are our clients. Because of the positive results Streetlife has used similar strategies to establish and develop in other countries/regions(EU/USA).Besides being responsible for the Scandinavian office I am also Sales Manager for Europe and this function enables me to share my experiences and help increasing our presence in other European countries.

Why did you become a member of the Dutch Chamber?The Dutch chamber for me is a place to meet inspiring people and see career opportunities.Our clients and specifiers are persons that work in various professional fields. Therefore the chance of meeting people at events that somehow are connected with our products is quite high.

We are happy to announce that as of this month, Viola Pettersson Vergouwe, has joined Armand Scheijen as regional director in Region West. We asked Viola to give us a short introduction of herself:

"Ten years ago I fell in love with my Swedish husband. Eight years ago I fell in love with Sweden. We are far from the traditional couple, we commute between Gothenburg and Lidköping vid Vänern. There we can tick all the cliché boxes: red wooden house along the lake, bastu in the garden, beautiful nature and quietness from the countryside. In Gothenburg we enjoy the vibrance of the city life. It reminds me a great deal of Rotterdam which is quite obvious since the Dutch have helped to build Gothenburg, which will be 400 years ago in 2021. An excellent opportunity to celebrate and strengthen the Dutch-Swedish connection!

The first Dutch Chamber event I joined in 2012 was in my role as marketing officer and sales support for the Dutch family-owned shiprepair yard Damen Shiprepair in Gothenburg. This event gave me useful insights about the Swedish corporate culture and was the kick-start of my Dutch/Swedish network. I highly value my relationships and look forward to connecting with them in order to create many inspiring and giving events in region west. "